The Lonely Walk: Chapter Twelve

"Please, Daddy," sobbed the boy in pajamas, clutching hands together, standing at the foot of his bed. "I can't stay here." Jif's father was having none of it. He slapped Jif twice, across both cheeks.
"Enough of that crying or the boogeyman will get you," mumbled the man, pointing a tar-stained finger at Jif.
His dad was Scottish and worked as a bus driver, along the Orchard Park Estate in Hull where he lived. His mother would work on and of as a till worker for some retail company. She never said which one. And Jif began to believe she never worked at all.
Jif's father had a long line of fathers who were aggressive. So he understood why he got punished; he just didn't believe it was fair.
His real fear of the dark came when one night he'd dropped a bowl of sugar in the kitchen. Jif was frog-marched by his dad into the tool shed and locked in. It was raining, and without light, it felt frightening for such a small boy. The roof began to leak, and he couldn't get out of its way. His hair would get wet; he felt dirty and useless. In the dull light, plastic bags and hammers would glint like a creature's eyes. He'd convinced himself the boogeyman was there with him.
He pounded the door and screamed for his life.
Then, his childhood memory faded away, to give way for another memory.

September 13, 2003, 1714 JST

"Where is it?" he shrieked.
Fido was waving the lighter from side to side, the glow of light bouncing off the rough brick of the tunnel wall. Then it went out.
"AHHH!" screamed Yuzuyu. "Put that back on!"
They were still running, but without light, they were running blind. Jif controlled his breathing, still holding Keitaro's shoulders. He heard Fido hit the flicker three times without success, before slamming the head of the lighter into his palm. Two furious smacks later, the light came back on.
"Is that water?" asked Yuzuyu. Jif listened carefully and could hear gushing water. He wasn't sure if it was good or bad. The light gazed over the walls, and on the right, flaking concrete partially obscured a steel door. Everyone sighed in relief. Keitaro pulled out the crowbar and handed it to Fido.
The tool chimed on the wall as it was smacked. Bits of cement tinkled onto the floor. The door eventually gave way, and they found themselves on an industrial metal walkway. The water was beneath them, gushing at a heart-pounding speed. It was a tunnel, dark and damp and smelly. It was too big for a sewer and certainly not a flooding subway. The group pressed on.
They climbed a flight of stairs and continued in the direction the water was traveling. Jif could see white mist of splashing water. A waterfall?
When they approached a slight bend in the walkway, they could see another flow of water in the opposite direction. They kept going and saw another flow from another tunnel opposite them. Jif looked down, and his heart sank.
"Oh, wow, I can't see the bottom!" exclaimed Yuzuyu.
The hole was about as wide as a sedan car and bottomless. Water from all three sources were falling and splashing together into the hole and disappearing into the blackness. Even so, the splashing caused droplets of water to fly up onto the group, and Jif felt his shirt suddenly go damp.
"See that?" Keitaro was pointing down at the other side of the tunnel. "That's the waterline, where it used to be! Look how low it is now!" He was right. The top half of the tunnel was light in colour; the rest was dark. The darkness being where the water level once was.
"Maybe this is a reservoir," said Jif.
"Is that the adjustment reservoir the man was talking about, when he spoke to you, in the fire?" asked Fido.
"I guess. The water was up there . . . then the earthquake happened, and this hole opened up . . . the water drained. It's . . . it's convincing."
"But where's the water going?" Yuzuyu asked.
"Down there!" replied Keitaro.
"No, where does it drain?"
"Into the foundations!"
And Jif suddenly realized that the city, the island, was turning into a sponge. The buildings would start to subside as it had once done in Tokyo. Or even the island would sink.
"We got to get back to the surface!" Jif said with his teeth chattering.
"This is dangerous, but so is up there," stated Fido. "We get shot!"
"If we get far enough, we can avoid the shooter."
"I have to agree, the only rescuers going to come are for the workers here," stated Keitaro. "Not many helicopters are going to come."
Fido relented. "OK. We see what this way takes us. OK?"
They started to pace along the steel walkway. Each step felt like walking on eggshells as the walkway wobbled and swayed like the deck of ship. They paced on about ten meters when the walkway ran out.
"There is a hole here!"
The tunnel wall had a jagged hole as if something had been driven through it. Bits and bobs started to fall out the hole as Fido tried to step in. It was stationery. Pencils, rulers, envelope. They were under a shop.
"It's a steep climb," stated Fido.
"What do you mean?" called Jif over the roaring water.
"The shop floor has collapsed," explained Keitaro, turning his head. "It's at an angle." That explained why the stock was falling out. Fido was already scuffling in through the hole, pushing bits of debris out onto the walkway. Then Keitaro went in.
Yuzuyu was hoisting herself in when the walkway started to groan. Jif looked down and saw the platform he was standing on was almost off its supports. He gasped and lifted his right leg as the metal twisted beneath him.
Spink!
He felt his weight disappearing as the platform swung out from under him. He fell straight down. No time to scream. He threw his arms out. The platform he once stood on was hanging like a flag under the other platform. His fingers stabbed through the tiny gaps. His mass pulled on them, as if they were being yanked from the knuckle. His body slammed into the grill. It rattled like a drum set.
"ARRRGGHHH!" he shrieked. He gripped to the iron grill with every ounce of strength on his fingers. Yet his mighty grip, and his weight, was causing his fingers to bleed as the thin steel cut into his skin. "Fuck," he squealed. Having to bend his head upwards was tiring on Jif's neck and was putting pressure on his windpipe.
"NO!" screamed the girl. Out of sight, he heard two separate footsteps rattle down the loosening walkway. The girl's pale face appeared first, with Keitaro just above her shoulder.
"Are you OK?"
What a dumb question. But he knew what she meant.
"Leave me!" screamed Jif in a restricted voice. He knew the bridge would collapse with his weight any minute, and even if the group could pull him up, there was every chance he would pull them in too. "Go!"
They didn't. Keitaro was the first to throw his hands out.
"Take my hand!" he yelled.
"Leave it. I'm too heavy for you!"
"Do it!"
"No! I'll pull you over!"
"Look! I've got a hard-enough time getting throughout the day without your death on my conscience! Shut the fuck up and help yourself!"
Jif looked into his eyes and saw something he never had! Honour! He released his right hand and threw it upwards. Keitaro grabbed it and yanked it for all his worth.
"Agh!" Jif felt as though his arm was popping out of its socket. He knew it was futile.
Then Yuzuyu took his other hand. He was still holding on to the grate. She prized her dainty fingers under his palm. Jif tried to give her some leeway. Her soft fingers encased his palm, and he felt weight and pressure become sudden on his elbow and shoulder.
And he looked up in amazement. Yuzuyu was standing up, gradually, with Jif on her hand. Her face was emotionless.
And he knew, the strength in her body was not ordinary. And he realized, the drawings, the designs for the body in the books that he had must have been for her. Which meant the obvious! That she was the intended target! But also, they were all going to get killed, simply because they knew her. And he wasn't going to let her die! Never!